"My skin, it is the cause. My skin, it is the cause, and yet i do not wish my skin were whiter than snow. I am Othello. Not just in the play cause all the worlds a stage"

 

"I'm winning at life cause i got cheat codes. But the code switching got my head swimming, scratching like schizophrenic verses with overfull line endings"

 

"Halleluiah i found this old white dead dude who seem to articulate the unarticulated feelings i had. i could quote biggie's "im ready to die" or tupac's "brenda had a baby", But If i could quote Shakespeare to the MAN, then the MAN would see me as a young MAGICAL NEGRO! But i wasn't magical, i was just smart."

 

ABOUT THE PLAY

I sat down four months ago to write a different story, but my subconscious, my soul, my spirit, my ancestors demanded I write this Epic Poem. I named this Poem "how Shakespeare saved my life", because mine was a life that needed saving, And a five-hundred-year-old dead white man lent me a hand. In America, it is often said that the only way out of the ghetto is to make music or play ball. Shakespeare was my way out. I was the son of two mentally ill parents, homeless twice before the age of sixteen, a high school drop out,  short, fat, black, and ugly, and Shakespeare transformed me. Shakespeare didn't change me, he revealed to me the beauty that lived within me. As a black man fighting injustice daily, my anger and need for revenge almost killed me. Shakespeare taught me how to forgive, and I'm thankful. I'm not here to share my story, but to tell you parts of my tale in the hope that this might save a life as well! 

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- Jacob Ming-Tent 

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ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Jacob Ming-Trent TV: "White Famous," Showtime (series regular), "Watchmen," HBO (series regular), "Ray donavan," Showtime (Recurring), "Feed the beast," AMC (recurring). Also seen on, "Only Murders in the Building," "WU-TANG: An American Saga," "New Amsterdam," "God friended Me," "High maintenance," and several more. Film: Superfly, Forty-year-old Version, Snakes, R#J, Possession of hannah grace, The Bygone, Julie Taymour's Midsummer Night's Dream and others. Broadway: Shrek The Musical (Original cast), Hands on a Hardbody, (Original Cast). Off Broadway: The Harder They Come, Pedro, Public theater, Lortel Nom. The Alchemist, Mammon, Red Bull Theater, Lortel Nom. Merry wives, Falstaff, Public theater, Drama desk nom. Father Comes Home From The Wars, Public Theater, Lortel Award. Twelfth Night, Sir Toby, Public Theater. Cymbeline, Public Theater. Mother Courage, CSC. Merchant of Venice, TFANA. Midsummer Night's Dream, TFANA. Widowers Houses, Epic Theater Ensemble. Tempest, Public Theater. On the Levee, Lincoln Center.